Everything He Loved
by Skylark Evanson
Summary: In his life, everything has been stripped away. Anything he has ever grown attached to or loved has been ripped out of his paws, never to be seen again.


**A/N: Only my second ThunderCats fic, so please be kind. Critique would be nicer than flames.**

**Set after "Native Son".**

**Disclaimer: I do not own ThunderCats.**

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**_Everything He Loved_**

That night, he lays under the stars, hidden under thick blankets of hide and leather. And his amber-tinged eyes fall on the lovely golden cleric who lies curled up beside the two kits, keeping the orphans warm against the threatening cold of the mountain air.

Tygra's dim eyes watch her sleep as a tired look creeps across his rapt countenance. He tucks one arm under his head like a pillow.

He wonders if he should love her.

In his life, everything has been stripped away. Anything he has ever grown attached to or loved has been ripped out of his paws, never to be seen again. Tygra fears the same will happen to her if he keeps her too close, and losing her is his worst nightmare.

He can hardly bear the thought of losing his newfound mate. She's elegant, tough, strong, beautiful; Cheetara is everything he's ever wished for, and it terrifies him even more. He's completely committed and head-over-heels in love. Some part of Tygra's mind knows he's going to lose her just as he lost his clan, his mother, his crown, his life...

It's hard to think back so far as to how he cursed his own family. His whole tribe. Now he stands as the last of the tigers, a nearly extinct race on Third Earth, all because of their legacy of working with the Ancient Spirits and Mumm-Ra. A cursed race, he as the last of the pure.

He cursed them by living, and now watches them die just as he has found his father and a place where he belongs. It's all stripped away so simply, without hesitation, as if he deserves none of it.

His mother was taken by Lion-O, and yet he cannot bring himself to blame his brother, especially not now that he understands. Tygra loved her dearly and hated the true prince for many years, but he reconciled upon understanding. His mother was taken by the gods. There was nothing he could do to bring her back; the orphaned prince could merely mewl and cry and beg to empty air.

Yet she would never return to the world of the living.

It was the crown that boiled up the most hatred inside of him. He despised every moment he could not have such a thing. Control over life, over the world, over himself, over the society that shunned his breed. Control was what he truly craved, not the power. He held ambition merely to better the world and Thundera.

Symbolizing such power was the crown he used to wear when he had been the sole heir to the heavy throne. He had it in his grasp until the maned demon came along to steal his mother and his control; the whole world spiraled downwards from there. Tygra was treated more as a soldier than a son. His legacy by his father's side was forgotten in Lion-O's tall shadow. He was the lost child once more, destined to be abandoned for a better future.

Cheetara... He'd lost her once already, and he doesn't want to lose her again.

When the clerics took her in, he wasn't stunned. She was quick as the river, strong as the king, and brave as any lion. Cheetara was someone he truly admired, the beauty only adding to his devotion.

Yet, when the clerics took her in, he was crushed. He'd lost her to her true passion, the only thing that still stood higher than him in her eyes. Tygra knew it was her destiny, but it didn't stop the hurt of losing her. For months, he wandered around, broken and lost, like a lost kit wailing for it's mother. He had nothing to look forward to anymore with her presence out of his sullen, doomed life.

Upon discovering he'd helped her survive through her trial outside of those heavy doors, Tygra couldn't hardly bear it; he was torn between sheer joy and an overwhelming ache. He'd helped her find her purpose in life only to ruin a large fraction of his own kithood.

Now, as he watches her by firelight, he knows he doesn't want to lose her again. He can't lose everything he loves. The Gods have scorned his accursed life enough, have they not? Tygra fights back a slight purr and lets his glowing amber orbs fall shut for sleep.

The future appears bright when the past seems grim.

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**A/N: Thanks for reading and leave a review.**

**~Sky**


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